Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The college is closed for the Christmas break but before it did the vet-tech dept. had a party on Thursday afternoon.
I walked in & saw that someone had used colored chalk to decorate the blackboard with a big Merry Christmas & then drew animal pictures all over it.
Someone drew a turtle & wrote the name Chip under it.
Ahhh they all fell in love with him too.
He's such a lucky boy because so many people care about him.
-----
PHRatz

I didn't realize you were at a tech college... I thought you were a regular school teacher

Ian

I've been a registered tech since 1997. I'm only an adjunct teacher in the program & this past semester I was teaching lab animal clinical management.
Chip isn't a lab animal but the new lab animal textbook they're using has info on what it called "non traditional lab animals" turtles & other reptiles are in that chapter. So when Chip came along I just included him in class because injecting him, feeding him, learning about caring for him was good experience for the students.
My vet was wonderful too. She allowed us to hold lab classes at her hospital 4 different times while she did turtle shell repair, rat, rabbit, & iguana surgery.. got it all on video. The turtle shell repair we got on video unfortunately wasn't Chip's repair. When he came along there wasn't time to wait for class day with him, he needed his repair done right away.
I can't tell you how much fun I had doing this!
Hopefully I'll be doing it again next fall.
-----
PHRatz

Now that is just sweet.

>>Now that is just sweet.

It is & it just about choked me up. Then a few days after that my neighbor called me, usually she won't call me unless something is up in the neighborhood. All she wanted was to know how Chip is doing.
Apparently he's created quite a stir.
I think it's just because nobody thought he would live through this or like me they're amazed by him.
He's still eating on his own, getting used to walking around the turtle proofed section of the house & doing great.
Talk about the will to live!
-----
PHRatz

There is just something about a turtle! Don't know if it's there little faces, their determination, the fact that they just go their own pace regardless of life around them, but they are just so endearing.

And Chip's story is quite amazing! I can understand why so many people are concerned.

Lori

>>There is just something about a turtle! Don't know if it's there little faces, their determination, the fact that they just go their own pace regardless of life around them, but they are just so endearing.
>>
>>And Chip's story is quite amazing! I can understand why so many people are concerned.
>>
>>Lori

You know there really is something about a turtle. They seem to be the adorable fuzzy & cute darlings of reptiles to people who don't like reptiles.
I can't tell you how many times I've heard the eeeeeeeeeeeewwwwww sound from people who are scared of reptiles, who think reptiles are gross, disgusting, ugly creatures but say the word turtle & they change that to an aaahhhhhhhhhh.
Then they say but that's different because turtles are cute.

Only once have I met someone who thought box turtles were ugly disgusting creatures. I'm not good at hiding my feelings, people can read my face like a billboard & when the woman said that I stood there & looked at her like she was crazy..
THAT was an uncomfortable moment LOL!!

Chip is such a sweetheart! The wild male we have outside would turn around & bite you in a heartbeat but Chip seems to understand that we've helped him & he's very calm with us.
I am so happy for him that he gets to stay alive.
-----
PHRatz